Right-leaning Super PACs topped their Democratic rivals by a factor of nearly three-to-one from the start of 2011 through June 30, according to a Sunlight analysis of filings made through midnight Friday. In the first eighteen months of the presidential election cycle, Republican-oriented Super PACs brought in about $230 million while Democratic-leaning super PACs raised less than $80 million.

Table 1. Total ending cash balance, spending and itemized contributions by reporting period

The dynamics of raising–and spending–money are quite different: Republicans gave freely in a fiercely-fought Presidential primary, while Democratic mega-donors largely stayed on the sidelines. As a result, GOP-leaning Super PACs outspent their Democratic rivals in all races $103 million to $13 million–roughly 8-1. Yet despite being outspent by $90 million in the primary, Democratic super PAC's have little to show for it: GOP Super PACs had more than $79 million in the bank on June 30, while liberal Super PAC's had less than $26 million.

Chart 2. Super PAC independent expenditures by political allegiance, though July 22

Democratic super PACs may have been greatly outspent so far but their Republican-aligned rivals spent the largest share of their money attacking other GOP primary candidates. Through July 22, GOP Super PACs had spent almost $124 million–but about $60 million of that went to negative ads about other Republicans. In contrast, just $18.6 million went to negative ads about Democrats ($45.5 million went to ads supporting Republicans). Those numbers, however, probably underestimate the amount of negative advertising against Republicans; during the primary it wasn't uncommon for Super PAC's to describe postive ads as "also opposing" their rivals in campaign finance filings.

In contrast, Democratic-leaning Super PAC's have spent $21 million opposing Republicans (primarily Mitt Romney) and less than $600,000 opposing other Democrats.

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